I'm trying to think if I've ever read a story where Republican senators are decrying a piece of their legislation as having to move "too far to the right" because they need to cater to the right-wing votes in their caucus. You can't either, right?
May 14, 2011

I'm trying to think if I've ever read a story where Republican senators are decrying a piece of their legislation as having to move "too far to the right" because they need to cater to the right-wing votes in their caucus. You can't either, right? It's only the Democrats who not only feel compelled to screw their base, they feel perfectly comfortable whining about it as if it's reasonable:

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), facing reelection next year, spoke up to oppose a plan being drafted by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad that would impose a new surtax on millionaires of about three percent on top of the higher tax rates they would face when the George W. Bush tax cuts expire next year, according to several people familiar with the exchange.

Nelson later explained through a spokesman that he was opposed to “double taxation,” even on the wealthy.

Another centrist on the budget committee, Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), has also opposed the idea.

Several centrist Democrats (Editor's note: They mean "right wing Blue Dogs") have been voicing concern in private sessions that Conrad’s draft may be shifting too far to the left in order to placate liberals on the committee whose votes are needed to move the legislation, according to aides.

Republicans have been rallying around a House spending plan authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), even as they’ve been sending mixed signals in recent days over a key provision calling for a deep overhaul of Medicare.

The Democratic-run Senate, meantime, has been unable — or unwilling — to lay out its alternative agenda.

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